Improved parent stocks developed

Accra (Greater Accra), 30th July 99 ?

The Animal Production Department (APD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has developed improved parent stocks of cattle, pigs and rabbits through cross-breeding of the local and foreign breeds.

The cross-breeds are almost twice as heavy as local ones, more disease resistant and their mortality rate is lower than the pure imported exotic ones.

Dr Blewusi Daniel Etse, a Deputy Director of the department who is in charge of breeding, said on Thursday in Accra, that the success story followed the reactivation of the Amrahia Farm and the Nungua Livestock Farms about five years ago.

The reactivation of the stations followed the adoption of the Medium-Term Agriculture Development Programme under the National Livestock Services Project.

The government and the World Bank are jointly financing the programme.

Dr Etse said at the Amrahia Farm, near Accra, artificial insemination is carried out on the local 'sanga' cattle with imported semen of friesians. The cross-breed are solely for milk production.

He said the improved breed produce six litres of milk a day as against one litre by the pure local cattle and that the average weight of the improved calf at birth is 26 kilogrammes while that of the local one is 17 kilos.

Dr Etse said for the last three years, the farm has sold about 104 cross-bred cattle to farmers.

It has been collecting milk from local trained farmers following the installation of tanks at vantage points, including Sekyere Odumase in the Ashanti Region, Akuse Junction, Juapong and towns around Accra.

He said the milk, collected under hygienic conditions, is chilled on the Amrahia Farm and sold to Fan Milk Limited.

Dr Etse said the Amrahia Farm and individual farmers have for the past two years sold about 400,000 litres of chilled milk to the company and the public.

At the Nungua farms, parent stocks of pigs are selected through performance testing, bred and sold to farmers for breeding.

Dr Etse described the result as "tremendous with farmers coming out with positive results," adding that the same success story goes for about 1,000 rabbits they have on the farm. So far about 450 farmers have bought some of the rabbits for breeding.

GRi?/